How Pete Crow-Armstrong Became the Fullest Version of Himself—and the Best Center Fielder in the World
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s professional baseball career was almost over before it even started. Before the 23-year-old center fielder was an incandescent star for the Chicago Cubs, a first-time All-Star, and a serious MVP candidate, he was a first-round draft pick by the New York Mets in 2020. That meant that his early days with the Mets’ organization were spent mired in the pandemic—and the speedy, hotshot Southern Californian outfielder committed a big no-no on day one.
“I showed up late for my COVID test on the very first day!” Crow-Armstrong tells me. “My very first day showing face as the first-rounder, slept two hours late. Fucking ran out of the house in what I slept in, shorts and a [tank top].” As Crow-Armstrong remembers it, the Mets farm director—who was a big proponent of drafting him in the first place—gave it to him straight.
“He was like, ‘Dude, if you ever do this again, you’re not going to play.’”
That summer, Crow-Armstrong (or PCA, if you prefer) was fresh out of high school at Harvard-Westlake, the prestigious LA prep school that counts everyone from Shirley Temple to the Gyllenhaal siblings to Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner as alumni. While surely the Mets would have looked past a few transgressions to eventually find a place for their prized prospect to play—and COVID canceled the 2020 minor league season, anyway—this story beautifully illustrates how much growing up Crow-Amstrong has had to do in the last five years.
“I was a dumbass 18-year-old,” he readily admits. “I was like, holy fuck. I finally get out of LA and I get to go play baseball.”
And then you blow it on day one.
“Really fucking smart, dude. Awesome.”
This is PCA in a nutshell: he’s perennially self-deprecating with a tremendous sense of humor, but he still radiates effortless cool. In classic Angeleno fashion, both of his parents are actors. His mom, Ashley Crow, starred in the ’90s baseball classic Little Big League, while his dad, Matthew John Armstrong, logged three seasons on the NBC drama American Dreams. Both were also in the show Heroes. But don’t get it twisted. PCA grew up around kids who were rich rich. As we joke about classmates having Marvel money and parents who let them throw lavish house parties, Crow-Armstrong tells me his story about being a child of the industry. “My parents always made jokes about the residuals,” he says. “My dad would—not to knock any sort of payday—but he’d be like, ‘Oh, I got paid three cents.’ We’re all in the house, like, ‘Yeah!’”
